This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf.  Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all my professional positions, including as press secretary in Washington, D.C. for a Democrat Congressman from Oregon (Les AuCoin), as an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, as press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and as a private sector lobbyist.  This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.  I could have called this blog “Middle Ground,” for that is what I long for in both politics and golf.  The middle ground is often where the best public policy decisions lie.  And it is where you want to be on a golf course.

The headline on this blog deals with a very important public policy challenge:  Public records.

Or, in the case of the City of Salem recently, the ongoing attempts to keep records secret.

Les Zaitz, editor of the Salem Reporter and a long-time journalist in Oregon, wrote about this in a recent column.  I reprint key parts of it below.

First, in the spirit of full disclosure, I know Zaitz well because when I worked for state government and when he worked for The Oregonian as an investigative reporter, we dealt often with each other.  And the subject often was public records.

On occasion, we might have disagreed, but I would say both of us had the ability to “disagree, agreeably.”

In Oregon, state law says essentially this – all government records are public unless they can fit into a special exemption written into the law.  Examples are personal information about state employees (such as addresses) that might subject them to danger, specific information on collective bargaining negotiations, information on public property the state might want to acquire that, if the value was known, could boost the price, and private company records (read, trade secrets) of companies considering expanding or locating in Oregon.

You can see the potential for controversy, though the weight rests on the side of disclosure.

Today, as editor of Salem Reporter, Zaitz and his staff of reporters aim to provide what’s often missing in the Salem area these days, which is quality local news.  Good for him and for my friend, Larry Tokarski, who has helped to fund Salem Reporter.

Now, for excerpts from Zaitz’ column:

“Salem city officials are determined to keep from you the information on why a top official under investigation was able to leave office with an unearned $53,500.

“Salem Reporter is working to change that, but powerful forces are lined up against us.

“Faith in government and transparency in public affairs are at stake.  Here’s the issue.

“Earlier this year, a deputy police chief in the Salem Police Department was under suspicion for some sort of misconduct.  As we have since learned, city leaders couldn’t advance their investigation because – and this is surprising – they couldn’t find an investigator.

“Instead, they cut a deal with the executive, who would retire from his city job, pack up his office, and walk out with an extra $53,500.

“This seemed striking and seemed to warrant an explanation.  Why would a top city official get paid to walk away while under investigation?

“The city took nearly three weeks to release a single document, doing so only after our news organization initiated legal action to force its disclosure.”

Zaitz goes on to report that Salem city officials deflected question after question about the release of documents.  And, when Salem Reporter did what the law requires, which is to appeal to Marion County District Attorney Paige Clarkson, she took the side of the city.

He also said Salem Reporter believes it will continue to be re-buffed by Salem officials.  But he also said the city cannot “blunt public opinion and this is where you come in.”

By “you,” he meant Salem area residents and he asked them to weigh in on the side of the public’s right to know.

I, for one, have done so.

Therese Bottomly, executive editor of The Oregonian newspaper, entered the fray the other day in her weekly “Letter to Readers.”  She wrote this:

“One of the underpinnings of public disclosure laws is that the public has the right to see how government is spending the public’s money.  That’s why salaries for public officials are open to all, budgets are posted on-line, and contracts can be examined.

“Secret settlements corrode the trust in public bodies.  We all know that employers sometimes make a judicious decision:  Pay a little money to help a problem employee move along and save a lot of expense, time, and headache that might come from a lawsuit.

“But if that’s what Salem did, the citizens have a right to know it.

“Under Oregon’s public records law, some documents are exempt from disclosure.  Many exemptions, however, have what is known as a “public interest” test — that is, does the public interest in the information in a particular instance weigh in favor of disclosure.”

Whether government information is public or private is always a subject for debate.  Often, there is solid rationale on both sides.  But, in Oregon, the good news, as Zaitz and Bottomly know, is that most records are deemed to be public, not private – and that’s a solid test of meeting the “public interest.”